Germany's EnBW to Capitalize $13.5 billion in Networks, RE thrust

EnBW has announced that it has revealed a 12-billion euro ($13.5 billion) investment plan and believed it was close to obtaining French renewable group Valeco, as the German utility endures its strategy of moving away from fossil fuels.

The spending strategy, covering the 2021-2025 period, mostly emphases on improving energy and gas networks, its operational backbone due to regulated returns, as well as growing its generation portfolio, most remarkably wind and solar.

Those two areas will account for 85 percent of the total investment, EnBW - which is almost entirely owned by the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg and local municipalities - alleged at its annual press conference.

"We are concentrating on what we are really good at, which is building and managing complex, large-scale and critical infrastructure safely and reliably," Chief Executive Frank Mastiaux held.

"Not just in the energy business, but also in other areas," he further.

In its latest expansion move in the renewables sector, EnBW whispered it was in exclusive dialogs to procure France's Valeco, which has an installed output of 276 megawatt (MW) and a pipeline of 1,700 MW.

Valeco, which has yearly sales of about 50 million euros, is majority-owned by the founding family. French public sector lender Caisse des Depots et des Consignations owns a 35.56 percent stake.

"We see good prospects for common growth in France," Mastiaux understood, adding that the group would also continue to work hard to win projects in the Taiwanese and U.S. offshore wind markets, where it has so far been ineffective.

Thinly-traded shares in the group were 2.7 percent higher at 30.80 euros per share, their highest level in more than two weeks, after estimating an increase in 2019 core earnings of 9-16 percent.

EnBW, which recommended a dividend of 0.65 euros per share for 2018, also believed it would take on 3,600 new employees by the end of 2021, which will result in net additions of 300-400 staff, Mastiaux alleged.